Decorative surfacing material



Aug. 28, 1 945.

A. A. GLIDDEN DECORATIVE SURFACING MATERIAL 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 File'd Dec. 28, 1959 19454 A. A. GLIDDEN 2,383,598

DECORATIVE SURFACING MATERIAL Filed Dec. 28, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 v I Patented Aug. 28, 1945 DECORATIVE SURFACING MATERIAL Alfred A. Glidden, Watertown, Masa, assignor to The B. F. Goodrich Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application December 28, 1939, Serial No. 311,376

Claims.

In the manufacture of many articles I have found that it is desirable to provide a covering of flexible sheet material having a decorative or ornamental finished surface and adapted forattachment by merely pressing the sheet into surface contact with the supporting body. Such material may be used for lining or covering containers, cabinets, or trays, for shoe uppers and parts thereof, for book covers, for lining automobile bodies, for coveringtable and desk tops, for making or omamenting garments, and for many other uses.

For certain uses such as in the manufacture' of elastic gores for shoes or elastic straps or belts for personal wear it is desirable to provide such a material having elastic characteristics, while for some other uses it is desirable to provide 'a material having less elasticity but capable of being folded or creased without cracking as in ornaments for garments and coverings for containers.

A removable protective covering may be provided'for the pressure adhesive face of the sheet and may be removed before the material is applied to the article.

Decorative surfaces may be provided by lacquering or varnishing, printing, or embossing the sheet material, or surfaces of flock of cotton, .wool, rayon, silk or other fibers, ground leather, cork, wood flour, or other comminuted materials may be supplied as a decorative face.

While sheet material having a pressure adherent surface such as surgeons tape, masking appearance'to provide a sheet material that may be adhered on itself to provide a doubled material, to provide an improved material for constructing uppers and other parts of footwear, to provide ornaments suitable for application to garments, to provide economy and efficiency of procedure, and to provide an improved product at low cost.

These and other objects will appear inthe following description and the accompanying drawings.

Of the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view in section conventionally showing apparatus for carrying out the method of the invention, parts being broken away.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a sheet of mateterial embodying the invention, the material being built up on a backing sheet, the backing sheet and the sheet material being broken away in steps to show its construction.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view' illustrating the production of a strap fromthe material produced by the method illustrated in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a portion of the "stra so produced, the end of the strap being for use in making an article of footwear and the tape and electricians splicing tape have been 'made heretofore, such materials are unsuitable for the purposes ofthis invention, especially as they have had no finished decorative surface suitfinished appearance, to provide uniformity of lo strap from which the gore has been prepared, the individual layers comprising the gore being folded back to illustrate the construction.

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of an article of footwear showing the gore applied thereto.

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of another article of footwear having a strap of material such as the material of Figs. 4 and 6 applied thereto.

Fig. 10 is a perspective view of a portion of a garment with an ornament of the material of the invention applied thereto.

Fig. 11 is a perspective view of a container lined with the material of the invention and having an outer covering thereof, .parts being broken away.

In its broadest aspect the invention in material is directed to the provision of extensive sheet material having a'decorative surface on one face thereof and a pressure adhesive surface on the opposite face. The decorative face may be a layer of adhered or partially embedded comminuted material such as cotton, silk, rayon or wool flock, comminuted leather or other fibrous material, ground cork or wood flour or other materials which may be applied by dusting or showering an adhesive surface, or the surface may be varnished, lacquered, printed or stippled and may be embossed to simulate leather or other finishes.

The sheet material preferably comprises a, body layer which may be a vulcanized rubber composition, and while an elastic sheet material may be desirable for some purposes, for other purposes where extensibility and elasticity are undesirable. a comparatively inextensible layer may be employed, such as a rubber composition containing a high percentage of fibrous material or even cloth. In some cases a relatively dead body layer having only slight extensibility but capable of bending, creasing or stretching slightly without cracking is desirable as where the material is to be permanently formed about an article. In such cases the layer may be of unvulcanized material containing a high proportion of fibers or pigments or both.

The adhesive layer may be of unvulcanized rubber composition or other similarly pressure adhesive compositions so that it may be adhered to an article merely by applying pressure without use of solvents, cements, or heat. The adhesive layer is preferably temporarily protected by a layer of holland cloth, vellum paper, Cellophane, oil-cloth, or other removable protective layers having a smooth glossy surface.

The sheet material may be understood more clearly from the following description in which the method of manufacture is first set forth as a convenient manner of showing the construction of the sheet material.

Referring to the drawings. the numeral l designates a three-roll calender of ordinary construction such as is used in the manufacture of rubber sheet material, having an upper roll ll, middle roll l2 and a lower roll it which rolls are supported in housings at opposite ends thereof and are provided with suitable gearing or other means (not shown) for driving the rolls at any desired velocity. A sheet of backing material l4,.

which may be of any substantially non-stretchable material having a body portion ii of woven fabric and a facing l8 of any material to which rubber will temporarily adhere, but from which th rubber may be torn loose when desired,-is

fed between the middle and lower rolls of the calender, and a bank ll of unvulcanizable rubber or similar plastic material is fed between the upper and middle rolls of the calender so as to calender a sheet i8 of the plastic material of uniform thickness therefrom.

The sheet passes around the middle roll and is pressed against the backing sheet l4 and is temporarily, adhered thereto by pressureapplied to the calender rolls. Thebacking sheet H with the unvulcanizable layer 18 of rubber-like material thereon is fed-into a second calender is having rolls 20, 2| and 22 and a bank of vulcanizable unbe drawn over the supporting roll 25 of a spreading device 28. A bank of plastic material 21 comprising a, vulcanizable plastic rubber composition containing flock material is applied to the face of the layer 24 and is spread thereover by a doctor bar 28 to provide a layer 29 of uniform thickness containing a high proportion of flocked material.

The backing sheet 14, with the layers i8, 24 and 29 thereon. is then passed over supporting rolls 30, 3i and under a cylindrical screen roller 32 in which a quantity of dry flocked material 33 is supported. The cylinder 32 is rotated by a belt .34 from any convenient source of power (not shown) and the flocked material is sifted through the screen and falls upon the layer 29 of plastic material, becoming adhered to any exposed portions of the adhesive rubbermaterial comprising the layer 29. To provide for uniform distribution of the flocked material over the surface and to promote the adhesion of the flock to the layer 29 a pair of rotatable shafts 35, 36 extend below the backing sheet l4 substantially in contact therewith and have beater blades 31 extending axially of the shafts 35, 36 which are adapted to strike-the under surface of the backing sheet intermittently during the rotation of the shafts so as to vibrate the backing sheet and its supported layers of material as it passes thereover.

The backing layer i4, with the flocked material thereon, is then drawn through a heated oven 38 where it is supported by rolls 39, 39 and heated by steam circulated through pipes 40, or by other heating means, whereby the vulcanizable layers of the material are vulcanized permanently to adhere the flock thereto. Any excess flock may be removed by passing the backing sheet l4, with the flocked material thereon, about guide rollers 4|, 42, 43 so as to reverse the sheet and bring its flocked surface to the lower side thereof over a bin 44. A plurality of rotatable shafts 45, 46 provided with angularly extending beater blades 41 are driven from any suitable source of power not shown in contact with the backing layer i4, thereby beating loose any unadhered or poorly adhered flocked particles. The completed sheet of flocked elastic material supported by the backing layer l4 may then be wound up as about a shaft 48 to provide a roll 49 in which form the material may be stored until desired for use or for further operation The flocked sheet of elastic material may be separated from the backing sheet l4 at any time thereafter and the unvulcanized layer l8 comprising the attaching face of the flocked material will be unvulcanized so that it may readily be adhered to other materials. The calendering, spreading, flocking, and vulcanizing operations may be performed successively and simultaneously as illustrated in Fig. 1, or the various operations may be separately performed in steps as desired, the apparatus shown in Fig. 1 being merely shown to illustrate the steps of forming the sheet of flocked material.

The layers 24 and 29 being fully vulcanized are elastically extensible and may be stretched without substantially changing the appearance of the flock surface. The flocked material may be employed for constructing the entire shoe upper by adhering its unvulcanized face to a stretchable lining coated with an adhesive layer thereby providing a shoe upper stretchable in all directions and readily conforming to the'foot of the wearer.

When the layers 24 and 29 are to be of unvulcanized or dead material, the method is the same but different rubber compositions or other rubber-like materials are employed. Other com minuted materials may be substituted for the flock. The various steps may be performed continuously in succession or may be done at different times on different machines.

If it is desired to provide a material having a leather-like surface, the flocking steps may be omitted and the face of the layer 29 may be varnished, printed, or stippled and embossed by passing the sheet through well known printing coating, or embossing machines for this purpose. For this purpose the layer 29 is preferably made of arubber composition high in fiber content.

Where it is desired to providestraps or belts-'of elastically extensible material having a flocked covering all over, the roll 49 may be rotatably supported between suitable standards 50, and a strip 52 of the elastic flocked material may be drawn therefrom over a table 53, the backing material It being simultaneously separated from the flocked material and wound upon itself to provide a roll 54 thereof for re-use. The margins of the strip 52 may be folded toward each other until they abut as at 55 along one side of the strap, preferably at its center, as shown in Fig. 4. The unvulcanized face layer l8 being adhered to itself throughout the width of the strap.

While the operation of folding the material upon itself to form the strap may be performed by hand, suitable folding guides may be employed so that by' merely drawing the strip of material through a folder and pressing it upon itself by suitable pressure rollers, the strap material may I be formed continuously and progressively.

Where it is desired to provide a strap having a core of elastic webbing, a strip 56 of elastic webbing may be drawn from a roll 51 thereof about suitable guide rolls 58, 59 and 60, one of which is submerged in a tank 6| of an aqueous dispersion of rubber or other adhesive material 62, whereby the webbing, which comprises vulcanized rubber cords 63 held together by fibrous warped material 64, woven thereabout so as to provide an extensible structure, is provided with an adhesive coating of rubber-like material. The coated webbing may then be assembled with a strip of the previously described flocked or otherwise decorated material and for this purpose a' roll 65 of backing material It with the flocked material thereon may be supported as upon a shaft 66. The backing material It may be withdrawn therefrom and rewound in a. roll 61 on a shaft 68 for re-use, while the strip 69 of flocked elastic material may be passed about a guide roll and in contact with a coating roll H whereby a coating of an aqueous dispersion I4 of rubber or other adhesive material may be applied to its attaching face to freshen the same and make-it more adherent.

The coated strip may then be drawn over a guide roller I2 and across a table I3 where it meets the strip of webbing and is folded thereabout to provide a strap as illustrated in Fig. 6. The aqueous dispersion 14 may be contained in a tank in which the coating roller H is rotatably mounted so as to be partially submerged in the coating material. A doctor blade Ila may be supported on the tank so as to contact with the face of the roll H and spread the coating of adhesive dispersion thereon to the proper thickness. If desired, the face layer i 8 may be omitted and the coating of aqueous dispersion will provide a substitute therefor. Where the face layer of unvulcanized rubber is employed,

the surface may be freshened, if desired by swabbin-g the surface with a solvent of rubber such as benzene or naphtha, in lieu of the application of a coating of dispersed rubber.

An elastic material flocked on both faces suitable for making gores for footwear such as the gore 16 of the pump 11 (Fig. 8) may be made by folding a strip of the flocked material havin an unvulcanized backing layer upon itself centrally thereof as shown in Fig. 7 and the strap so formed may be separated by cuts 18 to provide triangular shaped gores l6. Wider strips from which entire shoe uppers may' be cut may be made in similar manner.

In order to provide for holding the stitches whereby the margins of the gore are secured to the upper of the shoe, strips 19 of stretchable or non-stretchable textile tape material having an adhesive coating applied thereto as from an aqueous dispersion of rubber material, may be inserted between the wings of the folded strip as indicated in Fig. 7, adjacent the margins which, are to be secured to the upper of the shoe, and

l the stitches maybe then passed therethrough.

' 8| of the elastic material which may be that of Fig. 4 or of Fig. 6.

In preparing the flocked material, the backing layer It may be of holland cloth, vellum cloth, or

paper, or oil cloth or of any other inextensible material having a smooth face of material to which the rubber will temporarily adhere but from which the rubber may be readily separated without the employment of great force, and which will act to prevent stretching of the rubber layers during flocking, printing, or embossing operations.

A very suitable backing layer may be provided by filling the interstices of a light open mesh woven fabric with an emulsion of oil, water and pigment and drying off the water and then apply-.

ing to one face of the fabric, one or more coats of oil varnish containing either oxidizing or nonoxidizing oils and/or resins to provide a tacky surface containing some free oil. Where such a backing layer containing free oil in the varnished. surface is used in preparing the elastic flocked material, I have found that the free oil in the varnished surface migrates somewhat into the surface of the rubber layer adjacent thereto during use of the backing sheet as a support for my flocked material, in sufficient quantity to prevent vulcanization of the surface of the rubber layer and to render the surface of the rubber layer somewhat tacky even though the layer of rubber applied to the face of the backing material is a normally vulcanizable rubber composition, the remainder of the vulcanizable layer of rubber becoming completely vulcanized; Where the extensible flocked material is formed with a very tacky attached face. the application of an aqueous dispersion of rubber or of solvents of rubber.

may be omitted and the flocked material adhered directly to itself or to a layer of elastic webbing or other materiaL-by merely applying slight pressure thereto to effect adhesion. In mentioning the use of rubber compositions for providing the elastic extensible layers of the flocked sheet of material, it is understood that synthetic rubber-like material such as polymerized vinyl halide compositions, neoprene compositions, polymerized oleflne polysulflde compositions, and buta-diene polymers such as copolymers of butadiene, and acrylic nltrile, may be employed. 1

While I have described the gores 16 as made of the flocked material on both faces without an insertion of elastic webbing, it is to be undemtood that material such as that illustrated in Fig. 6 may be employed for the gores and also that elastic webbing material such as that illustrated in Fig. 6 may have a single layer of the elastic flocked material applied to only one of its faces.

The sheet material of this invention may be used to decorate sweaters, coats, or other garments, as illustrated in Fig. 10. For this purpose it is desirable for the sheet to have little if any stretch so as to avoid distortion of the ornament. The ornament I may be cut from thesheet material and may be applied to the garment ill! by removing the protective layer and pressing the ornament in place.

In Fig. 11 a container I02 has been lined with the sheet 103 of material of the invention. The sheet material has been cut to size and pressed in place. Similar sheet material I04 is applied to the outer surface of the container.

Variations may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as it is defined by the following claims.

I claim:

l. Adherent sheet material adapted to provide a finished surface of an article, said sheet material comprising an intermediate foundation layer of elastic vulcanized rubber composition, a layer of decorative material adhered to a face of said foundation layer, and a layer of pressure adhesive unvulcanized rubber composition at the other face of said foundation layer.

2. Doubled sheet material adapted to provide a finished surface at each side thereof, said material comprising an intermediate foundation layer of vulcanized elastic material, a layer of extensible decorative material at one face of said foundation layer, a layer of pressure-adhesive material at the opposite face of sai foundation layer, said sheet material being doubled with the adhesive layer adhered in face to face relation, and a layer of elastic reinforcing material located between the adhered portions of the adhesive layer to receive stitching.

. 3. Doubled sheet material adapted to provide a finished surface at each side thereof, said material comprising an intermediate extensible foundation layer of vulcanized elastic material, a layer of extensible decorative material at one face of said foundation layer, a layer of pressure-adhesive material at the opposite face of said foundation layer, said sheet material being doubled with the adhesive faces innermost and a layer of elastic webbing therebetween and adhered thereto.

4. Adherent sheet material adapted to provide a finished surface of an article, said sheet material comprising an intermediate foundation layer of elastic vulcanized rubber composition, a layer of flock particles adhered to one face of said foundation layer to provide a decorative surface permltting stretch of said foundation layer,-and a layer of pressure adhesive material at the opposite face of said foundation layer providing an attaching layer.

5. Doubled sheet material adapted to provide a finished surface at each side thereof, said material comprising an intermediate foundation layer of elastic vulcanized rubber composition, a layer of flock particles adhered to a face of said foundation layer to provide a decorative surface permitting stretch of said foundation layer, and a layer of pressure adhesive material at the opposite face of said foundation layer, said layers being doubled with the adhesive material thereof adhered in face to face relation and the layer of 

